The Controller
by Salad Shooter
Summary: Leela is just another ten-year-old kid until her curiosity gets her into trouble at The Sharing. Meaning goodbye normal life, hello Yeerk in head. But Leela's Yeerk is no ordinary Yeerk: she's Visser Three's sister, and she's got problems of her own ... [Not sure if I'll continue this. It does tie into Primary: the rise of Esplin 9466 so you can read that if you want to know more]
1. We are all in trouble

**A/n: Hi! Yes, this is a redo of Insanity Equals Happiness. I got my hands on my original documents so I've decided to fix them up for you all. ****Including the dreaded thought-speak problem. ****I've had this on my list of things to do for a while.**

**So here is the story, hopefully even better than before! :D**

**Oh, and note: The Cassie mentioned here is not Cassie the Animorph. This Cassie is white and slightly taller-than-average. Just to clear up any confusion.**

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**The Controller**

**Chapter 1**

My name is Leela.

I used to be your average kid. Kinda on the skinny side. Blond hair, blue eyes. Wearing jeans and a T-shirt.

I still am like that. I mean, I look the same. If you saw me walking down the street, you wouldn't notice anything weird about me. Until I opened my mouth, of course … but even then you'd probably just denounce me as a weirdo. You wouldn't know what I was. What I know. What I'm capable of doing.

But now I'm probably sounding like even more of a weirdo.

I'd better start at the beginning.

It all started with a poster. A stupid little poster hanging in the hallway at school ...

* * *

I bounced happily through the halls on the last day of school. School was officially out, and I was officially no longer a fourth-grader. Ten years old and the world was my oyster. Not literally an oyster, cause that would be just weird. But —

"Leela? Can I ask you something?" I heard my friend Cassie ask from somewhere further down the hallway. Cassie's my best friend and is also normal-looking — brown hair, brown eyes, a little bigger than me. Her level of weirdness is not quite up to my standards, but it's okay.

"Sure, anything," I yelled crazily.

"What the heck are you on?!"

"Cassie, Cassie. This is a _natural_ high."

Cassie shook her head in a Leela-you're-pathetically-insane sort of way. "Would you come take a look at this poster?"

I'd like to take this moment to point out that Cassie was the one who noticed the poster first. So for future reference, it _wasn't_ all my fault.

So I squeezed my way through about a million elephant boys and maneuvered between a couple cliqueish conversational circles, finally reaching the spot where she was staring at the shiny, colorful rectangle on the wall. The large block letters at the top of the poster read "The Sharing." It was advertising some kind of extra-curricular club. I couldn't really tell what the main point of it was — the poster advertised a whole bunch of different activities, from picnics to movie nights to service projects.

"Yeah, so?"

"So I'm thinking about joining," she clarified. "I really need some kind of life outside of school, now that it's over."

"What? I don't provide an interesting enough life for you?"

"Fine then. _You_ really need some kind of life outside of school. I thought we could join this Sharing thing together, which answers your next question."

"Mind-reader." I was about to ask what this had to do with me, and if it didn't then why the heck had she made me battle my way over here in the first place.

She laughed. "I'm just that good. So, you wanna check it out with me?"

"Fine," I said. "Just checking it out won't hurt."

* * *

The next meeting of the Sharing was at the beach. Cassie's mom had agreed to take us.

She was nice enough to let us go wandering about by ourselves. She's awesome like that. She knows we love exploring. Well, I love exploring, at least. Cassie just follows me wherever I go.

We messed around for awhile, but didn't stray too far. We didn't want to miss the food. Some guy was cooking hot dogs on a grill not too far from us.

"Man. The smell of hot dogs is making me hungry," I said to Cassie.

"Me too."

I looked around. Most people were just having fun — kids splashing in the water, grownups and teenagers playing beach volleyball further down the beach — but I noticed a few scattered groups of people conferring in whispers.

I looked at the hot dog man again. There was something ... what was that? It was so creepy. He looked normal, and yet ...

I poked Cassie. "Cass? You ever seen that guy before?"

"Which one?"

"The guy cooking the hot dogs."

"Oh, him." She looked over at him, then back at me. "No. But he's just a little … scary. That is really weird."

"Yeah. Definitely."

She shivered. "Whatever it is, I don't like it."

"You don't?" I said, surprised. "I want to find out about him. What is that ... that ... feeling, I guess? Who is that dude, anyway? Hey, you still wanna join this thing?"

"Maybe. I'm not so sure now."

"Heck, I do," I said eagerly. "I seriously gotta know about that guy."

"Then I will too," she decided. "Somebody's gotta keep you out of trouble."

"Me? Trouble?" I put on my cute-and-innocent face.

Cassie just grinned.

"I also wanna know what those whispering people are saying."

"Yeah, me too," she admitted. "But we have to be careful."

"Just, like, one little sentence. That can't hurt. And I have to know."

She looked at me, amused. "And you'll be tortured until you hear that one little sentence. Right?"

"Yep."

It was seriously nagging at me. My mom says I'm way too curious for my own good. But I can't help it. I hate not knowing things.

"Let's go for those two," I said, pointing to a man and a woman chatting near some bushes. "We can hide behind the bushes."

We crept close. Tried to look like two kids who just wanted to explore around the bushes. Wasn't hard, since that wasn't too far off from what we were — the only difference was that we were after something far more interesting than rocks or shells.

"Shhh," Cassie told me when we were in position.

"No duh," I whispered back. "You think I'm gonna stand up and start doing the Hokey Pokey?"

"Shutup! I'm trying to hear."

" — you know, I hear Edriss is leaving very soon," the man whispered.

"Yes. Everyone is talking about it," replied the woman. "Who'll be the leader of the invasion now?"

"I've just heard rumors. People say it's going to be the Yeerk that discovered the humans."

"Esplin-Nine-Four-Double-Six? Primary twin, of course."

"Yeah. Visser Three. The Andalite-Controller."

"You know, I've actually heard things about Esplin lately. That he's starting to go insane. That he — "

"That's enough, Leela!" Cassie hissed. "Let's get out of here."

So we did. Again, trying to look like we were wandering aimlessly.

"That was more than one little sentence!" Cassie said when we had put a safe distance between us and the two people. "And I have no idea what was said."

"Yeah, me either! I'd sure like to know, though."

She gave me a look. "I've heard you use that phrase one too many times now. But still ... "

"Who's Esplin?"

"Who's Edriss?"

"And while we're at it, what's a Yeerk?"

Cassie shrugged. "I guess we could find out."

"We will find out," I promised. "Or else I'll go nuts!"

"As nuts as whoever this Esplin person is?" Cassie laughed.

"Yeah. And we're gonna find out just how nuts that is!"

Now we were both laughing.

* * *

"You know, we've been 'associate members' of The Sharing for a long while. We haven't found out any more about the stuff we overheard," Cassie said.

We were at her house. In her room. Not really doing anything.

"Yeah, yeah, I know," I said, annoyed. It wasn't like it had escaped my attention. "I got a plan."

"What?"

I grinned conspiratorially. "You know, those meetings that the full members have? The secret, 'Only Full Members Allowed' things?"

She stared at me. "Leela. No way. Those are guarded by cops."

"So what?"

"We could get in huge trouble."

"It's a stupid meeting. They can't arrest me for being there. I mean, hey, it isn't really a crime, it's just against the rules of the Sharing."

"They could kick us out."

"Yeah. But who cares? They'll forget about us after awhile. We can just go back and pretend we're totally new."

"Fine. Knowing you, you'll probably go anyway and end up doing something stupid. So I'll come along to protect you."

She said that to make me mad. It worked.

"I don't need nobody to 'protect' me! Give me a break."

"Yeah, you do. You need protection from your own stupidity."

I stuck my tongue out at her.

* * *

"Shh," I told Cassie.

"No duh."

"Shut up."

"Didn't we have this conversation before?"

"I said shut up."

Cassie and I peered through the leaves. We had climbed this huge tree as high as we could. No one could see us unless they looked carefully, because there were about a thousand branches and billions of leaves between us and the ground.

I saw a couple of kids I knew. Plus the assistant principal of the junior high school, Mr. Chapman. And the creepy hot dog guy from before, wearing some dorky, tight-fitting clothes.

All of a sudden —

"Oh my God! Cassie. Look at the hot dog man. And do not scream. Do NOT scream."

Cassie opened her mouth, then shut it. Like I had three seconds ago.

The hot dog guy was turning blue.

"Whoa … " Cassie whispered. "That is scary. That is seriously scary. I knew there was something wrong with him."

"That is so cool!"

"Leela, I am like frozen with fear and you are saying this is cool?"

"I'm not saying it's not scary. But it's cool too. Hey! Look at his eyes! Weren't they dark brown a few minutes ago? They're dark blue now! And ... they don't look right anymore."

"How in the heck can you tell from here? I can barely see if his eyes are open or shut!"

"Speaking of which, shut _up_."

This eyeball on a stalk sprouted from his head. Then another one. I briefly considered screaming.

"Don't you dare, Leela. Mouth shut."

"Oh man, that is weird!" I whispered.

SPROOT! SPROOT! Something sprouted from the guy's chest. Two somethings. Horse legs.

_Horse legs? Huh?_

Blue horse legs! And the original legs were becoming two more horse legs. The guy was growing taller by the second.

Suddenly his body bent weirdly between the extra chest-legs and the arms. He reared up like a horse.

When his front hooves — yeah, _hooves_ — hit the ground, he looked kind of like a centaur. A blue centaur with extra eyeballs.

Then his mouth disappeared! His hair seemed to be sucked into his head, like someone slurping up a mouthful of spaghetti. His ears climbed up the side of his head and became smoother, bigger, and pointed. His nose shrank, and for a second he had no nose at all. But then these three slits appeared in his face.

Blue and tan fur grew everywhere. The dork-clothes just kind of faded away into the fur.

Last, the tail sprouted. Long, thick, and furry. At the end, a mean-looking blade grew.

"HOLY CRAP!" I yelped.

"Leela!" Cassie hissed.

Whoops. I guess I'd forgotten to whisper.

Cassie was absolutely furious. "I am going to KILL you! You do NOT know how to hide!"

The weird horse hot dog guy had stopped changing. He turned his extra eyeballs on our tree.

I gulped. "Oops."

"Yeah, oops. Told you you'd do something stupid. Uh-oh. Now look. Horse-man is coming toward us."

"Horse-man. Sounds like a comic book character."

"Not the time, Leela."

‹All right, who's that? Get down here this instant!›

I jerked. There was this voice in my head! "Who said that?"

"Brilliant, Leela. Now Horse-man is definitely coming toward us."

‹Get down from there!›

I still couldn't tell where the voice was coming from. It was just … there, in my mind. It was the weirdest thing ever. Well, except for Horse-man's transformation. That definitely won the prize for weirdest thing ever.

‹If you don't get down, you will force me to take extreme measures. Stand back, everyone.›

Horse-man whipped his tail. It sliced through part of the tree trunk. He tried to swing it back for another try.

Only he couldn't.

It was stuck.

I snorted. I couldn't help it.

Cassie looked furious. She glared at me. "When he gets unstuck, he'll probably succeed in chopping this tree down. We better scram."

I climbed down the tree. Cassie did the same. We leaped off the last branch and hit the ground running, but these two men sprinted after us. They grabbed our arms and yanked us back toward the blue horse guy, who had finally succeeded in freeing his tail.

‹Now exactly _what_ were you doing up there?›

Now I was sure it was Horse-man doing the voice-in-the-head thing. He was glaring at us. It was hard to read his completely-not-human face, but it was fairly obvious he was pissed.

"Um ... just climbing that tree. We, uh, like climbing it." Wow, I sounded convincing. "We weren't, you know, doing anything." _Much_, I added silently.

"Uh-huh," the person holding me sneered. He seriously was squeezing my arm hard. It hurt. I was not feeling good about this at all.

‹Give the little one to Hekliss 8275. I don't care about the other one. Ask Iniss who's next in line for a host. Now take them to the pool.›

"Well, if we're going swimming we can't be too bad off," I whispered to Cassie. "But _little_ one? Remind me to beat Horse-man up when I'm twenty-five."

Before that, I hadn't been scared much. Not really scared like this. It was a new thing for me. I guess I didn't know what else to do besides make jokes.

Horse-man changed back into the hot dog man.

"He _did_ have brown eyes," I commented.

We were dragged up to a nearby parking lot and shoved inside a car. Then the two guys got in the front seat, while I saw Horse-man got into the back of a black limousine not too far away.

"No fair. Horse-man gets the limo while we get this little thing."

"Shut up," the guy in the driver's seat said. He twisted the key in the ignition and the engine kicked on.

I glared at the back of his seat for a second, then turned to Cassie. "Seriously. These guys have no manners," I whispered under the engine noise.

"The bad guys never do," Cassie whispered back. "Haven't you seen any movies? We are so in some deep doo-doo."

I shrugged. "Hey, this is the most excitement I've had in a long time."

"Leela!"

"I'm just trying to look on the bright side here."

"Just shut up. You got us into this mess. Now leave me alone."

* * *

We rode in silence. I almost fell asleep. Suddenly the car stopped.

Cassie poked my arm. "Hey, Leela."

"What?" I asked, yawning.

"We're at the junior high school."

"Aw, man. I thought they said pool."

"So did I." She looked at me funny. "And how the heck were you SLEEPING?"

"I wasn't quite," I tried to explain.

"Shut up and come out," one of the guys said gruffly.

They grabbed our arms again and unceremoniously led us inside.

"Where are we going?" I asked.

"Yeah, where are we going?" Cassie echoed.

"Shut up, both of you."

"Geez," I muttered. What jerks.

Thr four of us walked down the hallway. I expected the place to be mostly empty — the halls were darkened — but there were actually quite a few people there. Men and women, adults and kids. Everyone seemed to be going the same place. Some were talking. Others were silent.

I didn't know what to make of it all. No one looked too miserable. Of course, no one else was being yanked through the halls by their arms.

It wasn't long before we reached what I recognized as the janitor's closet. Apparently that's where everyone was going, because people were coming from all directions and heading straight into the closet. Way more people than could comfortably fit in there! I blinked several times, but no, it was true. I counted at least nine people who disappeared through the door, and there were more coming.

"Out of the way. Involuntary uninfested hosts. Move, people!" said one of our guys.

"We're going in there?" I asked.

Cassie shrugged with her free shoulder. "Looks like it. I have no idea why. What's an involuntary uninfested host?"

"Wow. Say that ten times fast."

"No way."

They dragged us into the closet. The guy who'd just said "Move, people!" did something with a hook on the wall and the faucet on the sink, and the wall suddenly opened!

"In there," he ordered.

There were steps going down. Way too many steps. My legs were beginning to ache when the wall on each side of the stairs suddenly ended. No wall, and no railing either — just a sheer drop. If I strayed off the steps I'd be falling for a very long way, so I carefully kept to the middle of the steps as we marched down … and down … and down …

Out of boredom, I randomly sniffed the air. "Hey, I smell something strange and stinky. I smell something else stinky ... I think it's people's sweat. I smell — hey, I smell hamburgers! And French fries. Hey, I'm hungry." I hoped we were going to eat down here.

"I'm not noticing the smells," Cassie said tensely.

I risked a glance downward, although I'd been afraid to since the walls had stopped. I do heights okay as long as I know I can't fall, but the lack of a railing was making my nerves go wild. "Wow! It's practically an underground city. Look, there are buildings, and people, and — "

"Look around," she insisted. "And listen, too."

I listened carefully.

Someone was screaming. "Aaaaahhh! Aaaaahhh! Help! Help us! Get your hands off me, you monsters!"

I winced. "Oh, man. I'm getting a bad feeling about this."

"Soon it's going to be us screaming. Let's get out of here!"

Cassie tried to run, but the people behind us blocked her exit.

I rolled my eyes. "Could have told you that was gonna happen. Maybe if we cooperate, they won't do anything to us," I said, not really believing it. "Besides, the place has hamburgers."

"Just _look_, Leela!" Cassie hissed.

I looked. And this time I saw.

* * *

It looked like a huge pond. A pool. Full of this muddy gray-brown sludgy liquid. Every so often I'd see a flash of something swimming in it. _Gross_, I thought.

Two steel piers extended over the pool. On one, people were standing patiently in line. At the end were two creatures like nothing I'd ever seen before. They had to be at least seven feet tall, and they had blades everywhere — their arms, their legs. They even had spiky curved horns jutting out of their head, and two more spikes at the end of their tails. And I'd been freaked out at Horse-man's single tail blade. That was nothing compared to these guys.

Right now they were standing over a woman who was bending over the pool. I strained to see better, but couldn't tell what was happening. Without warning, the woman started screaming and generally spazzing out.

The blade-guys grabbed her arms roughly.

And then I saw the cages. The cages full of humans and blade-monsters. The two non-caged blade-monsters dragged the woman to one of the cages and shoved her inside.

She didn't stop screaming.

On the other pier was a shorter line of people. All humans this time. Two more blade-guys were at the end of this pier. They were holding down a screaming, yelling guy who was maybe in his forties.

Suddenly the man became quiet. He stood up and calmly walked away. The next human in line calmly knelt down by the pool, while the blade-monsters walked over to one of the cages and pulled someone out — this time one of their own kind — and dragged him harshly back to the end of the pier.

"Oh man. Cassie, what's going on?"

"This is really, really weird."

"As weird as I am?"

Cassie whipped her head around to glare at me. "Leela! This is so not the time for jokes."

"This is the perfect time for jokes. We're walking down stairs that have a sheer drop on either side to a place of screaming people in cages. We can't run away because there are guys with guns nearby. There are bladed monsters, giant worms — " there were these ten-foot-long bloated centipede thingies with huge round mouths full of teeth crawling about everywhere " — and a pool that stinks, and I can smell hamburgers while knowing I'm probably not going to eat one although I'm starving. There's that scary Horse-man down there, and he's a centaur again. He's got that tail blade that could probably slice a person apart before they could say one thing. And I'm actually relieved to see him, which means I'm probably going nuts. This is definitely a time for jokes."

She glared at me again. "How can you be relieved to see Horse-man?"

"Well, I don't know. Probably because he's slightly more familiar than those blade-guys and the worms. Slightly, as in pretty much not at all? But I have some idea of how he'll act, at least."

"Oh sure, _that's_ comforting," Cassie muttered.

"Kosher what?" I said distractedly.

We had reached the bottom of the stairs.

"Now, you see the people standing nicely in line?" one of the guys with us said. "You two get over there. Don't try to run away, because we have Dracon beams as well as the human guns." He waved something that vaguely resembled a gun in our faces.

"Oh, man," I moaned again.

"Get over there now, or else."

I didn't exactly know what he meant by "or else", but for once in my life I wasn't gonna wait around to find out. "Come on, Cassie. I don't want to make these people mad."

"I have a bad feeling about this," Cassie moaned.

"Yeah, I do too. But hey, let's get in line before these guys use their guns."

We walked over to the end of the line. Trying to not make any sudden moves, because the guy had his gun-thing — Dracon beam, whatever — trained in our direction. I didn't want to make him freak out and start shooting.

"Man, this is insane," I said. "One minute we're normal kids — at least _you_ were, Cassie — and then we see Horse-man turn into his blue-horsey-ness. We end up under the school with monsters we've never heard of, standing in line for I don't know what."

"I'd like to go home now," Cassie whispered.

"Yeah. I want my mommy."

Cassie snorted. I started laughing.

The woman in front of us turned around. "Voluntaries," she sneered. "Collaborators. What kind of no-good kids are you?"

"Hey, hey," I said, putting my hands up in a "whoa, slow down" gesture. "We have no idea what's going on. We're clueless."

"I don't think we're voluntaries," Cassie said. "That dude back there called us 'involuntary uninfested hosts.' Whatever that is."

"Do you know what's at the end of this pier?" the woman demanded.

"Yeah, blade-monsters." Cassie shot a look at them.

"No. You don't know. Sorry for bein' rude. Most people in this line are voluntaries. Not me, I'd escape if I ever got a real chance, but I know I wouldn't make it ten feet right now. My Yeerk knows that I won't try to run. I keep some dignity this way." She grinned. It wasn't a comforting grin. "Anyways. Welcome to hell."

"Come on, it can't be that bad," I reasoned.

She snorted. "It can't? You'll see how bad it can be, my friends. Wait till you reach the edge of this pier. My turn now. Don't touch me," she snarled to the blade-guys who wrestled her down. "Someday, I'll be free again. And you all will be dead."

She said some other words. The type of words that my parents would definitely ground me for life for saying.

"Okay, _what_ is she talking about?" Cassie demanded.

I shrugged. "She's either wacko, or she's perfectly sane and we are all in trouble."

* * *

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	2. If she knew what was in our heads

The woman hissed threats at the monsters as her head was held over the sludgy pool. We couldn't see what was happening, but suddenly the woman calmed down. Stood up slowly. Brushed herself off. And simply walked away as if nothing had happened.

"What was that about?" I wondered.

"We'll find out — oof! Hey!"

The blade-guys grabbed Cassie and wrestled her down to the goop, holding her head below the edge of the pier where I couldn't see it. She struggled wildly, which seemed to annoy them.

"_Hifrach shalkee_! Keep still!" one guy said in a harsh, guttural voice.

"Cassie, quit it!" I hissed. "There's no way you can fight those monsters."

"Leela ... my ear. My ear!"

"It's okay," I said. Obviously it wasn't, but what else was there to say?

"Something … wrong … don't feel … right ... "

All of a sudden, she quit struggling. Just like the woman before her had done.

She got up. She smiled at me. It was a mean, smirking smile. Very un-Cassie-like.

"Hi, Leela."

The blade-monsters seemed to have lost interest in her.

"It's your turn, Leela. Have fun."

She winked. Also un-Cassie-like. Cassie is not the conspiratorial type. That's more my department.

I stared at her, uncertain. "Cassie?"

Then the blade-freaks grabbed me with their rough, clawed hands. They shoved me down and held my head out over the thick sludge. They pushed it down — oh no, were they gonna dunk me in that smelly stuff?

My ear touched the wet goo. I felt something awkwardly slimy touch my ear … and slip into my ear!

"Oh, gross!"

As I felt the slimy thing slither more deeply into my ear, it began to hurt like crazy. Before the pain got too intolerable, though, my whole ear quickly went numb. That was a relief at least. Still, I was highly unsettled at this intrusion into my body. I randomly recalled my mom saying "Never stick anything into your ear that's smaller than your elbow," and idly wondered whether the slimy whatever-it-was was bigger than my elbow.

Suddenly —

‹Esplin got his tail stuck in a tree! Hah-hah! Remind me to annoy him about that later.›

I tried to say "Remind who to what?" but no words came out.

_Remind who to what?_

‹Oh. Hello.›

Again with the voice-in-the-head-thing! _Um … hi._

‹Leela? That is your name?›

_Yeah. How'd you know? _

‹My name is Hekliss 8275.›

_I can't talk. _

I tried to get up. Nothing! I tried to look around. Nothing!

What was going on here? Why couldn't I move?

What had the slimy thing done to me?

‹Don't panic, Leela. I'm controlling you now.›

_Controlling me?! What the crap? Who are you? _

‹I am a Yeerk. I am inside your brain.›

I sat up. Only it wasn't me. I mean, I didn't try to sit up. It was like someone else was making me do it.

‹I am making you sit up,› the voice in my head explained gently. ‹You'll get used to it.›

_Okay, this is seriously NOT okay here! Get the frick out of my head! _

‹But this is the first human host I've ever had. I'll leave you every three days. Someday, I'll leave you for good. You won't be like this forever, unlike most host bodies. I promise.›

_Cassie? She has a … a Yeerk, too? _

‹Yes.›

I got up. I mean, Hekliss got up, and I came along for the ride.

"Cassie?" we asked.

That's the best way I can describe it. Hekliss would decide what to do, but we both would do it.

"Yeah?"

It _sounded_ like Cassie.

"So who are you?"

"Derane-Three-Four-Four. You?"

"Hekliss-Eight-Two-Seven-Five."

"Oh. Okay. I guess we should go back to that Sharing meeting. My host's mother will be worried."

* * *

The two of us — well, I guess it would be the four of us — tromped back up the looong flight of stairs. We hopped in the car with the two men again. They were much more civil to us now. Now that we were being controlled by things called Yeerks in our heads. Wonderful.

"So how is Leela taking it?" Cassie — Derane — asked.

"She's okay. She was a little freaked out at first, but I calmed her down. What about Cassie?"

She made a face. "Cassie's been screaming at me since I first made contact with her brain."

"Oh."

"One of those things you just have to ignore, I guess."

Hekliss looked pained. "These humans, they are not Hork-Bajir or Taxxons or Gedds. They're almost like us. They think, they feel, they have ambitions and hopes, just like you and me. Cassie's just lost control over her whole body. You could at least do whatever you can to make it a less miserable experience for her."

She raised an eyebrow. A more familiar Cassie expression, but I wasn't fooled. "They're just hosts, Hekliss. Hosts. Bodies. What should I care?"

Hekliss shrugged my shoulders. "I care."

"Well, good for you, Hekliss," Derane snapped. "I don't."

Derane didn't talk to us much after that. She just stared out the window with Cassie's eyes.

* * *

Back at the meeting, it wasn't long before I spied Horse-man's limo pulling into the parking lot. It was his human body who climbed out shortly afterward. Made sense. His centaurishness must not have been able to fit.

‹So who is that guy anyway?› I asked Hekliss.

‹That's my brother. In human terms, he's my little brother.› She laughed. In my head. Seriously weird, I tell you. ‹It is so funny to think of him that way.›

‹Horse-man is your _little brother?!_›

‹Yes. His name is Esplin 9466. He ranks Visser Three.›

‹Man, you Yeerks have a big thing with numbers. Wait! You mean Esplin the wacko?›

Horse-man — Esplin — walked over to us.

"Hekliss?" he asked. "Lissss-suh. How do you like your human host?"

"It's great. Thanks. And stop doing that!"

"What? What-tuh."

"That. Playing with the sounds."

"I am not used to making mouth-sounds. It has been many years since I had a human host. Host-tuh — sorry. Besides, it is the Andalite tendency to play with mouth-sounds when in human morph."

"Ah," Hekliss said.

"Anyway. We have wasted a lot of time. Wase-ted. Waisssss. Tid. The meeting — ing inging — is supposed to have ended already. Reddy. And you are not supposed to be a full member yet. Go back to the associate members. Uhss-SO-sheeeeut? Sosh. Shuh."

"Esplin! Seriously! It's you who's going to blow the cover of the entire invasion if you don't stop that! Besides, it's annoying as heck!"

He glared at her. Esplin's glare is extremely freaky, even when he's just a human. His eyes look like could they burn holes right through you.

Hekliss was apparently unfazed. She glared straight back at him.

‹I'm his favorite sister,› she told me. ‹I'm the only one who can tell him that kind of stuff without him going ballistic and killing me. So I figure it's my duty to keep him from doing stupid things.›

‹Like Cassie tries to keep me from doing stupid things?›

She laughed in my head again. ‹Apparently Cassie wasn't that successful.›

‹No, I guess not.›

‹I'm not always successful either,› she admitted. Out loud, she said, "Okay, I'll go now. The adult human who was supervising my host will be very concerned about her absence by now. I'll probably have to leave the meeting. But please, promise me you will STOP playing with sounds."

"Fine," Esplin said grumpily.

We raced away and tried to find Cassie's mom. It took awhile. Cassie was already with her.

"Leela! Where have you been!" she yelled. Hekliss looked questioningly at Cassie.

"Mom, I already told you. We were exploring around the dunes and stuff and we lost track of time," Cassie/Derane said patiently. "I thought Leela was with me."

"Sorry, I saw my other friend here and stopped to talk to him," Hekliss explained.

Cassie's mom was not placated. "Do you have any idea how long it's been?! It's getting dark! I've spent the last hour and a half looking for the two of you!"

"Sorry. I forgot to wear my watch."

"Don't think for one second that I'm not telling your mom about this. Cassie's grounded, and if your mom has any sense, which I know she does, you will be too."

"Aw Mom — " Derane began, sounding like nothing less than authentic Cassie.

"Hush, Cassie. Yes, you're grounded. Now both of you, get in the car. And next time I take you two to the Sharing, you're not allowed out of my sight."

Now it was my turn to complain. _Aw man!_

"Aw man!" Hekliss said almost immediately.

I would have shot her a look if I could. ‹Thanks for saying it for me, but it's seriously creepy how fast you can do that.›

‹Sorry, I can't help seeing your thoughts,› Hekliss apologized. ‹You think them and I see them. It's just the way it works. You have to admit, it helps me be you pretty well.›

‹Yeah, I guess. Probably a good thing. Cassie's mom would freak if she knew what was in our heads.›

* * *

**Response to anonymous reviewers (I sent review-replies to those of you who left signed reviews):**

**Puppylover06: Yup. At her age, she's still gotta worry about that sort of thing. Also, I changed the author's note in the last chapter to clarify that this Cassie is not Cassie the Animorph. She just happens to have the same first name.**

**Pollimigo: Thanks! And so I have :D**


	3. This is going to be awkward

I was surprised at how much my life continued as usual after that. Except for Cassie, no one knew anything had changed. Most of the time, Hekliss didn't do anything I wouldn't have done. As far as anyone knew, I was still just a normal kid who was best friends with Cassie and who had happened to get herself into very huge trouble.

Yes, I was grounded. Very grounded. Confined to my room whenever I wasn't out with my parents. It sucked. Although to my surprise, Hekliss managed to sneak out in the middle of the night to go back to the pool place every few days. I doubted I would ever have been able to pull that off on my own. I'd never snuck out before.

The first time she slipped out of the house, I asked, ‹Why don't you do this more often? I am so bored being stuck in my room all day!›

Her reply sounded unusually tense. If "sounded" is at all the right word. ‹Because the less often I do so, the less likely your parents are to discover me.›

‹So how come you're sneaking out now?›

‹Because _I need to live._ So shut up,› she snarled.

I was extremely curious, but she was apparently in a foul mood. So I decided not to say anything more.

* * *

Back at the pool, she joined the line at one of the piers. The other pier this time. The one with the longer line of people and blade-monsters.

‹What's happening?› I wondered.

‹You know how you need to eat? Yeerks need to eat too. And this is how we do it. And I'm hungry.›

Evidently her grouchiness had not improved.

When we got to the front of the line, Hekliss made me kneel down, and then she slipped and slithered out of my ear, landing in the pool with a soft _plish_. Before I had time to enjoy having my head all to myself, though, the blade-monsters grabbed my arms.

This routine again.

"Hey! Would it kill you to be a little more gentle!"

This time, instead of pushing my head down to the goopy, sloshing liquid, they dragged me back into one of the nearby cages, then slammed the door and locked it.

"Oh, this is just lovely," I griped, massaging my arms where the monsters had gripped them. "Back home, I'm grounded. And when Hekliss sneaks out, I get stuck in a cage. This just sucks."

No one paid any attention to me. They were too busy screaming or crying or glaring at the blade-monsters or staring off into space. One guy stopped glaring just long enough to throw me a look that plainly said "shut up."

Sometimes it seems like all anyone ever does is tell me to shut up.

* * *

It seemed like ages before the blade-monsters finally came back and unlocked the cage door.

"Hey!" I said as one of them began to reach into the cage. "You don't have to grab me. I get the routine. I'm supposed to go over to that other pier now and get Hekliss in my head again, right? I can do that. I can walk over there and stand in line like a good girl." I pointed to the other pier, the one I'd waited at three nights ago.

The blade-monsters glared at me suspiciously.

"You _hulkaff_ come out and walk _argrish_ by me, _kulrach?_" one of them growled.

"Yeah yeah. Walk next to you. No problem."

"No _halaf_ escape," the other threatened.

"Nope, not gonna run away." I almost laughed. Like getting away from them would be possible. I had the feeling that all I had to do was look at them sideways and they'd go all slasher with those scary blades of theirs. Or at least grab my arms and return to the drag-me-across-the-floor thing again. So I stayed very close to the blade-monsters and tried to look as innocent and cooperative as possible.

Kneeling down to let Hekliss slip back into my ear was actually a huge relief. The blade-monsters once again lost interest in me, and I had someone to talk to who would maybe actually not ignore me.

‹Feeling any better?›

‹Much.› She laughed. ‹Sorry about that. I get snappish when I'm short on Kandrona rays.›

‹Kandrona rays?›

‹Yeah. That's what we, well, "eat." We absorb Kandrona rays while we swim in the pool. I'll have to return here every three days.›

‹That's a lot of sneaking out.›

‹And that's why I have no intention of sneaking out for any other purpose, particularly one as trivial as supplying you with entertainment.›

‹Darn.›

* * *

The grounding lasted two weeks. _Two weeks._ Of basically solitary confinement, except for meals and the occasional errand run with Mom. Absolutely barbaric, I tell you. I was bored out of my mind.

So, for lack of anything better to do, I badgered Hekliss with questions.

‹What were the blade monsters in the pool place? And the worms? How can Esplin change from a human into a blue centaur thing? Do you have any other family members? What do Yeerks do when they're not in humans? Why are you all here on Earth? Why do you do the whole Controller thing?›

‹Whoa whoa, one at a time. One at a freaking time. I can't keep track of all of those questions at once.›

‹Okay, fine. Blade-monsters.›

‹They're called Hork-Bajir.›

‹What are they like? What do they do?›

‹Good grief. Well … I guess they're pretty boring when they're not Controllers. They climb trees and eat bark all day. They're basically stupid.›

‹Oh. Okay. What about the worms?›

‹Those are Taxxons. They're not fun. They'll eat anything that's alive. Even each other. Even the Controllers will do it, cause it's such a strong urge that the Yeerks in their heads can't stop it.›

‹Eeeeeewwww.›

‹Take my advice: Stay far away from them.›

‹Yeah, I got that. So. Now I really want to know about Esplin. How can he do his whole changing thing?›

She sighed in my head. ‹What you call the blue centaur thing is what he really is. Well, his host body anyway. It's an Andalite. He's the only Yeerk with an Andalite host body. Anyway, the thing with Andalites is they can morph. They can turn into any type of creature as long as they've touched it and acquired it. So he gets to do that.›

‹Wow. That's pretty cool.›

‹Yeah, but being the only Andalite-Controller has really gone to his head. He's become extremely annoying.›

‹Ah. So he thinks he's all special just cause he has this Andalite body.›

‹Yeah, pretty much.›

‹So what are Andalites?›

‹Andalites? They're jerks. They hate us Yeerks.›

‹Why?›

‹Long story. Reeeally long story. Basically they think they're better than any other sentient species. They hate us just because one Andalite gave us advanced technology, and they can't stand us being at their level.› She paused. ‹We're kind of at war with them.›

‹_War?_ Wait, are there Andalites _here? _Besides Esplin, I mean?›

‹No. No fighting is going to break out on Earth anytime soon. Calm down. The Andalites don't even know we're here.›

‹Okay. Well that's good. I guess.›

Then I realized. ‹Wait. You said "on Earth." So that means … you are all aliens from outer space then? Yeerks, Andalites, all of you?›

‹Yes,› she said, sounding amused. ‹What else would we be?›

‹I dunno. But that makes sense then. Wow. There is an outer space alien in my brain. And I am totally talking to it. This is freaking awesome.›

Hekliss laughed. A lot.

‹What's so funny?›

‹Your reaction to the idea of life on other planets. And also, your previous notions of what such creatures might hypothetically look like. Ridiculous.›

‹Okay, so mind-controlling slimy things and blade-monsters and blue centaurs are somehow less ridiculous than whatever pictures I might have had in my head of aliens?›

‹Of course.›

‹Oookay. Whatever you say. Anyway, Ms. Outer Space Alien, I am totally not done asking you questions.›

‹Darn.›

‹Shut up. Now where were we?›

‹Andalites … Esplin …›

‹Oh yeah! Esplin. So do you have any other family members?›

She laughed again. ‹I have about a thousand siblings.›

‹Wait, what? A thousand? You're not serious, are you?›

‹Totally serious.›

‹You have any parents?›

‹Hah. Yeerks die when they become parents. I suppose I should explain Yeerk reproduction to you … ›

She fell silent. I waited expectantly.

Then out of nowhere —

‹Hold it! Hold on one freaking minute! You are pitifully ignorant about your own species' reproductive process!›

‹Um … we don't get sex ed till fifth grade?›

‹All you know is wild rumors and jokes and speculation from young humans who are equally ignorant! I can't even deduce a coherent explanation of human reproduction myself! This is absolutely ridiculous!›

‹Oh crap. I just realized. You'll be there. There in my head when we have sex ed next year. This is going to be awkward.›

‹Wonderful. Your perception of your upcoming education on this topic as "awkward" is making me feel that it is going to be awkward. I'm not looking forward to it.›

‹You know, you could, like, leave my head. And then not have to deal with it.›

‹Not yet!› she protested. ‹Not until I have another host lined up. Then I'll let you go. Normally you'd just be given to some other Yeerk, but I'll make sure that doesn't happen. Somehow.›

‹Why do you Yeerks have to take … "hosts" … anyways?›

‹Do you know how much it sucks to be a Yeerk without a host?› Hekliss demanded. ‹We're blind! Tiny! Defenseless! Helpless to do anything except swim around in our pool. It's a miserable existence. At least, once you have the experience of seeing and having a powerful, mobile body. After that, you can't really settle for anything less.›

‹Wow.› I couldn't think of anything else to say.

‹You humans are really lucky,› she added. ‹You're born with your bodies. We can only get them if we take them.›

‹Wow. So is that what you're doing on Earth? Just trying to get human bodies?›

‹Yeah, pretty much. There are a lot of humans. More than enough for the Yeerks that don't have hosts. It works out.›

‹So are Yeerks always such jerks to the people they take for new hosts? Like the guys who drove us to the pool?›

She sighed. ‹Maybe some of them. But that was an unusual situation. You saw Esplin demorph, and he was worried that you would tell other humans about it. So he sent you to the pool for emergency infestation. Normally we try to get people to become Controllers willingly. That's the whole point of The Sharing.›

‹Ohh. So it's all just to get people to let Yeerks into their heads?›

‹Yeah, pretty much. Although, as you know, we don't tell them that right away. We wait until we think they're ready.›

‹Wow.›

‹So yeah. I was put in your head to keep you quiet,› she said smugly.

‹Hey!›

‹You have to admit, it's worked pretty well.›

‹Grrr.›

* * *

Eventually — after repeated efforts to convince the supervising Hork-Bajir I had no intentions of trying to escape — I ended up being what the Yeerks call a voluntary Controller. Basically, it means a person who is okay with the whole Yeerk-in-the-head thing and so the Yeerks trust them to not try and run off. Cassie, on the other hand, was involuntary, which meant she got the cage-and-dragging-across-the-floor treatment. We ended up being put on the same Yeerk pool schedule, though, since we were best friends and would be expected to go places together. Eventually Cassie even got her mom to start driving us both to the pool, so Hekliss didn't need to sneak out at night anymore. Hekliss was relieved, but I was disappointed. I'd never snuck out before she came along and I thought it was kind of exciting.

I didn't talk to Cassie much while our Yeerks were feeding, since it was kind of frowned upon for voluntaries to go talk to the people in cages. I guess they were afraid of conspiracies or whatever. Apparently they didn't trust us voluntaries that far. But I got away with it once in awhile, as long as I didn't stick around too long.

"Hey, Cassie," I hissed into the cage.

She turned around. "Yeah, what is it?"

"Why do you hate this whole deal so much? It's not that bad."

"It's not? How can you say that? I lose control of myself! And I have to watch as Derane tries to make my family into Controllers! You know why my mom's been driving us here lately? She's a Controller now. All because of Derane. She knew we needed reliable transportation to the Yeerk pool, so she got a couple of her Controller friends to help her slip a Yeerk into Mom's head. While she was sleeping! She hasn't tried anything that drastic on the rest of my family, but she won't stop badgering them to join The Sharing."

I gaped. Stared at her. "Hekliss is definitely not doing that."

"Why not?"

"I dunno. Maybe Derane is just different."

Cassie snorted. "Derane, different? Hah. Man, I guess your Hekliss hasn't talked to any other Yeerks since you got her. Almost all Yeerks are like Derane, if not worse."

"She talks to Esplin sometimes."

"Esplin?"

"You know, Visser Three. Horse-man."

"Oh man. Visser Three? Have you ever been around Visser Three when he gets mad?"

"Not really mad, no."

"And Hekliss hasn't told you about it, huh?"

"No."

"Well, you're lucky. Esplin, who we've heard is crazy, is Visser Three?"

"Yeah."

"I have seen why people say he's nuts. He _is_ nuts. He like whips his tail around and suddenly you are wondering why you are staring up at your headless body."

"Hekliss said something about him going ballistic and killing people. I thought she was exaggerating. Well, now I know why she stays far away from him whenever he's in a bad mood."

"Yeah, cause she's smart. Also. You know what's freaky? Derane has a boyfriend. A freaking BOYFRIEND. And he has a grown-up human host. Tell me that isn't awkward. They don't do anything … illegal … " She shuddered. "But they are way too good of friends for me to be comfortable. I mean, he's like forty! That's just wrong."

"Awkward."

"Yeah, that's what I said. By the way, I still blame you."

"Me?"

"Yes! It was your brain fart that got us into this mess!"

"Are you ever going to forgive me for that?"

"Of course. When I'm like thirty-five, maybe."

"Geez. Grouch. Uh-oh, I gotta run. That Hork-Bajir over there is definitely eyeballing me."

"See ya."

* * *

**Reviewer's Response:**

**Birdie num num: You have disabled private messaging so I cannot review-reply you :( I remember reading many of your stories though and am happy to see you have stumbled across one of mine :D**

**Yeah, Leela's lucky that she didn't get a scary mean Yeerk bent on world domination. haha. So her story can have a lighter tone. At least here at the beginning. As time progresses, though, she'll be faced with some darker issues. But there'll still be plenty of comic relief.**

**And I am, as you can see, updating soon :D Actually, I was thinking of posting another chapter tonight before I got your review, but you just gave me that much more motivation ^__^  
**


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